Rabbi Charged for Illegal Transport of Korban Pesach

(Thursday, July 5th, 2012)

Police are filing criminal charges against Rabbi Yehuda Glick for illegally transporting a goat on erev Pesach, which he planned to shecht for korban pesach. The rav is what is referred to in Eretz Yisrael as a Temple Mount activist, and he wanted to bring a korban pesach and eat it with matza and marror despite the fact the Beis HaMikdosh does not stand today.

Glick was being followed by police and he was detained at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City with the goat to prevent any provocation act on Har HaBayis. They also prevented him from reaching the Churva Shul where he was to meet with others to recite seder korban pesach.

Glick protested the arrest and filed a lawsuit against police for false arrest. The court is expected to announce a verdict in the case in the coming weeks.

Ladaat.net reports that now, three years following the incident, police are planning to charge Glick with a law addressing the illegal transport of animals. The law requires a certain type of vehicle and the driver must have received a permit for transporting livestock.

Har HaBayis activists are outraged over the action of police, what they call the cynical abuse of the law, and they are calling on Knesset members to legislate appropriate laws to avoid such occurrences in the future.

I would consider filing a brief in the case on behalf of the goat. Aside from tzar baeli chayim issues, these Har Habayis nutcases create a chillul hashem by ignoring the clear directive of gadoylei yisroel. It also poses security risks since such a lunatic action would be viewed among the local muslim population as a provocation and risk riots and bloodshed. Glick’s claim that he “regularly” rides around with a goat in the trunk of his small car raises separate issues.

Most Shitohs and Miforshim hold that during the Bayis Rishon, the Yidden did do the regular Mitzvohs Doiraiseh: Tefilin, Tzitzus, Fast on Yom Kippur, Mezuzah, Krias Shema Bzmanoh, Sfira, Shofar on R”H, Esrog, Etc, and dozens of Mitzvohs which we can’t do today.

Never-the-less, none of them were important enough to be mentioned any-where in the Pesukem, not even as part of a story.

But the episodes of the bringing of the Korban Pesach is mentioned three seperate times.
So we see how Choshuv the Pesach is in the eyes of Hashem.

Why all the LH over a Jew who at the end of the day is only longing to fulfil a mitzva?? I’m certainly no posek but isn’t the halacha “tuma hutra btsibur”? Okay so we haven’t heard any gedolim saying that is what we should be doing quite yet – but isn’t that at least enough to dan the poor man lchaf zehut with his intentions even if it might not quite be halacha lemaase (yet!)..??

#1, If that’s not your religion, then you’re not Jewish. The Jewish religion believes in korbanos, and “worships physical territory”, i.e. the Har Habayis. Protestants believe that Hashem is mufshat from the world, and that the idea that a physical object or place can be holy is idolatrous; Boruch shehivdilonu min hato’im. The halacha is that we are obligated to bring a korban Pesach every year, whether there is a Beis Hamikdosh or not. The only reason we don’t is because we are being prevented by the government. In the past by the Ottomans and the British and the Jordanians, but now by the Israelis. This Rabbi Glick wanted to highlight that sad fact. Yasher Koach to him.